Holo3DGIS: Leveraging Microsoft HoloLens in 3D Geographic Information

Three-dimensional geographic information systems (3D GIS) attempt to understand and express the real world from the perspective of 3D space. Currently, 3D GIS perspective carriers are mainly 2D and not 3D, which influences how 3D information is expressed and further affects the user cognition and understanding of 3D information. Using mixed reality as a carrier of 3D GIS is promising and may overcome problems when using 2D perspective carriers in 3D GIS. The objective of this paper is to propose an architecture and method to leverage the Microsoft HoloLens in 3D geographic information (Holo3DGIS). The architecture is designed according to three processes for developing holographic 3D GIS; the three processes are the creation of a 3D asset, the development of a Holo3DGIS application, and the compiler deployment of the Holo3DGIS application. Basic geographic data of Philadelphia were used to test the proposed methods and Holo3DGIS. The experimental results showed that the Holo3DGIS can leverage 3D geographic information with the Microsoft HoloLens. By changing the traditional 3D geographic information carrier from a 2D computer screen perspective to mixed reality glasses using the HoloLens 3D holographic perspective, it changed the traditional vision, body sense, and interaction modes, which enables GIS users to experience real 3D GIS.